Overtures
by ZoeBlaize
Summary: Naruto may be as family-less as Sasuke, but he, at least, has his plants.


Authors Notes: Hey there. This is my first fic in literally years, please be merciful. :D

This story is a response to the SasuNaru Kink Meme: http[colon][slash][slash]community[dot]livejournal[dot]com[slash]sasunaru[underscore]kink[slash]

(don't forget to replace everything in brackets with the correct punctuation)

Prompt: According to wikia, Naruto likes to garden. I want something to do with this strange factoid about the boy.

* * *

All of the young genin in Konoha had their own morning routine. No two ninja had the _same_ morning habits, but there were some overlaps between certain of their number. In the older clans, the overlap was that most of them, whether by choice or by (family) law, at least a few minute's meditation wiggled its way into the schedule.

Naruto Uzumaki, however, was completely orphaned and had raised himself, so he did not meditate - he may not have even known what it meant. He did, however, have a space in his morning routine to organize his thoughts and clear his mind.

Naruto hummed to himself as he gave the ferns a drink. They were demanding, thirsty little things, and he always had to water them first, before anyone else. He watered the rest in turn, the vines curling around the windowsill and the cheerful herbs on the kitchen counter and the closely trimmed bushes in pots at the end of the bed and the tiny, tiny old bonsai nestled between baby bamboo beneath his calendar. He patted them as he watered them, catching them all up on the day's agenda and the previous night's dreams, making mental notes as to which plants would need fertilizer soon and that one of the bamboo might be suffering from root rot.  
Underneath all this mental busyness, he considered Sasuke again. The past few weeks, Naruto had noticed his surly teammate surfacing in his thoughts, mostly during his morning routine. He couldn't figure out _why_ his rival was always on his mind, especially during this quiet time he spent tending his friends. He always appeared his Naruto's mind's eye with that same scowl he always had when faced with the fox-child, but Naruto's memory of the expression made Sasuke seem...sad, almost.  
But that was silly. Sasuke was adored by everyone he passed, what cause had he to be sad? If he desired companionship, all he had to do was leave his house in the spooky Uchiha district and go for a quick walk.  
Then again, that was asking for some of his bolder fangirls to start pestering him, and that never made Sasuke happy. Fangirls aside, Sasuke didn't seem to really like crowds, either, which he inevitably tended to attract if he stood in one place long enough.  
Hmm.  
Sasuke was really like a dusty plant, wasn't he, all alone in that house of his? Naruto had never heard of anyone even trying to visit him, except his fangirls of course, and Naruto didn't really count them. Sasuke certainly didn't.  
What Sasuke probably needed - and wanted - was someone to be there quietly, Naruto mused, but maybe even someone to keep an eye on him, just so he didn't go off training too hard and forget himself, rather like how Naruto's bonsai watched over his bamboo on either side.

* * *

The next day, at practice, Naruto had long forgotten his musings about Sasuke-the-sad-weed, as he always did when he wasn't with his plants, and Team Kakashi was hard at work with exploding kunai, Sakura's second-favorite training drill.  
"All right, kids, let's break for lunch, before your stomachs rumble louder than your explosive tags," called Kakashi.  
"_Naruto_'s the only rude enough to have such a loud stomach!" insisted Sakura from beneath the tree Kakashi was perched in. Of course, Sakura's own stomach chose that moment to growl like a jungle cat and she flushed a brilliant pink and said no more.  
The three genin gathered underneath the tree with their lunches. Sakura daintily (but speedily) ate her food, while Naruto cracked the seal on a stay-hot takeaway box from Ichiraku and ate with his usual gusto. Lunch, and the whole day, would have progressed without comment, except that Naruto noticed something white next to him and looked, seeing three identical onigiri stacked neatly on a napkin beside his knee.  
"Ne, ne, Sasuke-teme, why'd ya put your food over here? Not hungry?" Naruto cocked his head to the side, having paused inhaling his ramen momentarily.  
"I seem to have made too many," Sasuke replied without looking at anyone.  
"But-"  
"Just eat them, usuratonkachi. You'll never catch up to me if you continue to look so starved all the time," Sasuke bit out, smirking, finally looking at Naruto. The other boy would have spit out something angrily and probably tackled him had Kakashi not chosen that moment to interject.

"Oh~? So you didn't make Naruto onigiri to thank him for that lovely, thoughtful present he left you this morning? How cold, Sasuke, to snub your boyfriend like that~!" the jonin admonished, one visible eye curled mockingly at Sasuke.  
"What?! Naruto! Since when are you and Sasuke- S-sasuke-"  
"Ack, Sakura, it's not what you think! Kakashi's a perv-"  
"Kakashi! Take it back, you stupid, useless jonin-"  
"Denial's not just a river in Egypt, you two~"

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the "spooky" Uchiha district, a bright green bamboo in a plain brown pot stood tall and proud in the windowsill of the main house, a bright orange card stuck in its dirt:  
TEME -  
STOP BEING SUCH A LONELY, DUSTY WEED.  
- YOUR FUTURE HOKAGE


End file.
